


and don't you know the liberty bell is a replica

by flibbertygigget



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Angst, Book: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 10:32:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14330568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: At the end of existence, Severus Snape smiled.





	and don't you know the liberty bell is a replica

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't like CC, but alternate universe angst is my jam. Poor Sev.

_And what will you give me in return, Severus?_

He had promised the Headmaster everything. He had _done_ everything, everything he could think of, spied and lied for one act, one end. He hadn’t expected, on that windy hilltop nearly forty years ago, to ever have a reason to regret it.

_You disgust me._

It was selfish, so selfish to falter now, even in the privacy of his own mind. He had killed Dumbledore. He had given the boy his last order, though it nearly killed him. He had hidden Granger and Weasley, hidden what few rebels had escaped the massacre after the Boy Who Lived had been struck down in the Great Hall. He had kept his cover.

_Don't look shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?_

Too many, Albus, far too many. Neville Longbottom and both the Patils and the Thomas boy and damn near all the Weasleys and…

Well. Sometimes he felt like he was the only one left to keep fighting. Even Granger and Weasley, dedicated and determined though they were, could do nothing but hide. He rebelled where he could -

_Lately, only those whom I could not save._

\- but it wasn’t enough. It couldn’t be enough. If he stepped so much as a toe out of line, he would be killed like all the rest, and then what good would his sorry life be? But if he stayed silent… He hasn’t thought of those words with Dumbledore for years. He had never been reflective, and a man could justify anything in a crisis.

_You disgust me._

Still, he _had_ tried. No one could say that he hadn’t tried. He had kept fighting the Dark Lord, even though it would have been far better for himself to simply give in. Far safer, as well. Easier.

_Harry Potter is dead._

_Not in my world._

It was insanity, pure and simple. He had never heard of a time turner that could turn back years rather than hours. He had never considered that Granger and Weasley might have children, a family, had things turned out differently. He sure as hell had never though Potter could have lived. The only unsurprising element of Malfoy’s tale was that he himself was dead. He had expected that long ago.

_And what will you give me in return, Severus?_

It hadn’t taken long, after selling himself to his second master, for him to make peace with the idea of death. At times that was all that had kept him going: the fact that, no matter what happened, no matter what horrors he was forced to live through, in the end he would die. He would be able to see Lily again.

_Not in my world_.

He was no longer so certain.

If Scorpius succeeded, this version of reality would no longer exist. All his work, all his life, and his sacrifices – everything since that terrible battle would be wiped away as if they had never existed. Because they _wouldn’t_ exist.

_Still, there’s glory._

Because, except for his own fate, it sounded as though the world was better off. Granger was Minister for Magic. Weasley was a father, a good father no doubt. Potter – Harry Potter was alive.

He swallowed. He didn’t _want_ this, but this wasn’t about what he wanted. If he had a soul, it belonged to Dumbledore. He’d made that bargain forty years ago. If he had a soul, if he had a soul that counted, he would be happy, and if he didn’t… well…

If he didn’t, then everyone else would be happy still. That was the most important thing.          

_Sometimes costs are made to be borne._

_The world changes and we change with it._

They’d never know what costs he had borne to carry the remnants of the Light, but that was fine. He would carry this weight, just a little more, just a little longer. He would let his story end, bleeding out on the floor of that horrible Shack. It was the least he could do.

_And what will you give me in return, Severus?_

At the end of existence, Severus Snape smiled.

_Anything._


End file.
